Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October.

The War on Science, Anti-Intellectualism, and ‘Alternative Ways of Knowing’ in 21st-Century America

by H. Sidky

The decades-long academic assault on science has bewildered the American public about the role and function of science, promoted anti-intellectualism, and politically empowered purveyors of supernaturalism and paranormal beliefs.

by Craig A. Foster and Steven M. Samuels

Racism is abhorrent. It is therefore easy for a movement such as skepticism to adopt anti-racism stances, but skepticism must avoid promoting viewpoints because they are politically popular or self-satisfying.

by Sam Scott

Jennifer Eberhardt’s research shows subconscious connections in people’s minds between black faces and crime, and how those links may pervert justice. Law enforcement officers across the country are taking note.

The most serious implication is that Daryl Bem, a famous and well-respected psychologist, has been guilty of “an unethical manipulation of data in search of statistical significance” to support claims of the paranormal.

The Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the “Colosseum,” is the largest and most majestic amphitheater of ancient times. It is the second most visited monument in the world (after the Great Wall of China), and in 2007 was included among the new seven wonders of the modern world.

by Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl

It is tempting to dismiss events such as last year’s “Pizzagate” shooting as the work of disturbed or unintelligent people, but social research provides an opportunity to explain the seemingly absurd episode and perhaps help avert future tragedies.

by Eric Wojciechowski

To increase excitement into what is perceived as a normal, uneventful life, some people create their own personal myths of adventure and accomplishment. These are not just exaggerations of real events, and such narratives can be in the realm of the fantastic.

by Bertha Vazquez and Christopher Freidhoff

A high school biology teacher asked the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science (a division of the Center for Inquiry) a series of questions about teaching evolution. Bertha Vazquez, director the foundation’s Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), answered.

The Conspiracy of the Fairies

In 1989, Ralph Rosnow and Robert Rosenthal, two well-respected experts on statistical methods in psychology, wrote the following memorable line: “We want to underscore that, surely, God loves the .06 nearly as much as the .05”. For researchers in psychology, this was an amusing statement.

Repeating Erroneously the Words of Another

The hairy man-beast known as the “Sasquatch” or “Bigfoot” is now ever present in North American culture. Supposedly a throwback to our evolutionary past, it is an “ape-man” version of us just as the little-bodied, big-headed, humanoid extraterrestrial is a futuristic one.

As surprising as this might sound, the unfortunate reality is that in many high schools across the country evolution is often avoided or covered superficially as part of a crammed science curriculum, taught by teachers who are underqualified and poorly supported.

I trust that I need not persuade readers of Skeptical Inquirer that in today’s world of post-truth, alternative facts, and rampant pseudoscience, critical thinking—reasoning that helps to compensate for our biases—is needed now more than ever.

by Ramzi Hakami

Predatory journals can be defined as “publications [that take] large fees without providing robust editorial or publishing services.” They usually “recruit articles through aggressive marketing and spam emails, promising quick review and open access publication for a price.

by Jeanne Goldberg

It is paradoxical that in populations supportive of science and democracy scientific issues have become politicized to the degree that objective evidence is ignored or rejected in favor of “alternative” opinions.

In his “Missing411” series of books, author David Paulides claims that people are going missing from U.S. national parks under unusual circumstances and the National Park Service is obstructing attempts to investigate. What are the facts?

by Craig A. Foster and Sarenna M. Ortiz

Proponents of the vaccination-autism link have created a bogus scientific debate by providing lists of studies that supposedly support their claims but are actually either questionable or irrelevant. We identify this as a relatively new pseudoscience tactic: the promotion of irrelevant research.

The issues we address are only “soft” targets in the sense that there may be little scientific support for some of these claims. But these claims actually can be very resilient because of ideological support or commercial interests.

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